I got the distinct privilege this year to celebrate not one, but both of my babies’ birthdays during this quarantine. My heart was just about shattered when I realized so many of the plans I had for their birthdays this year would have to be squashed because I wouldn’t be able to invite friends or family.
This year, we were celebrating a 3rd birthday and a 1st birthday, and when I finally came to terms with the conditions of quarantine, I was determined to not let their birthday celebrations fail. I adapted, and I think we did a pretty good job. They weren’t the celebrations I had planned, but both days turned out really fun.
We are social people, and I knew the hardest part of not having big birthday plans was not being able to see all our favorite family and friends. So, we planned ahead. We put together goodie bags and cupcakes for all our friends, and family that we couldn’t invite over. I think this hyped up the anticipation of the day even more.
With quarantine in effect this year, the hopes of something big like the zoo, or pool, or the aquarium were gone. So, in turn, I tried to make the day inside our home feel special and big. I kept all the little traditions: decorating their doors with streamers and balloons, laying out all their gifts for them to wake up to, and of course, a big traditional birthday breakfast!
Then, we delivered all the goodies. We stopped by all friends and family’s homes (those that live close by), and dropped off the goodies we made on their door. We honked and waved, and told them to join us for a video-call party later that night. My kids had fun driving around, seeing all their friends that they’ve missed, even if it was from the car.
We are super lucky to have a lot of families live close. I let them and other close friends know ahead of time that we’d be doing an online party, and that if they wanted to, they could drop off gifts at our door before the party. This truly was the best part of the day. Every time the doorbell would ring, they would sprint to the door, anticipating the gifts on the other side.
We ended the day with a video-conference birthday party. It wasn’t the party I had wanted, but it was actually pretty fun. Everyone tuned in with the cupcakes we made and delivered earlier, and we were even able to include our family that lived far away. After singing happy birthday and digging into some cakes, the kids got to show off all the gifts that had shown up at the door all day.